please do not exceed three paragraphs for each. These paragraphs must meet the writing standards given in the rubric below.

Please read the Case below and answer the following questions:

Describe how Nancy's assumption about employee problems affected her management practices.

1. Given the communication patterns between her, her staff, and other department heads, how should her communication and management situation be described?
2. What should she do now, after her boss' lecture, about dealing with the situation at hand?

Chapter 16 Case Study- Bad News in Budgets

First State Financial Services, Inc., was the largest institution of its kind in the state, with over 150 branch offices at various locations throughout the state. The company provided a variety of banking, investment, and insurance services to both retail and commercial clients in its metropolitan market areas. As such, the Budget Department played an essential role in monitoring the costs and income of the company and in preparing the budgets for the various departments. Because accurate budgeting was so crucial to effective company management, the Budget Department had been given the additional assignment of preparing selected budget specialists for greater responsibilities in the Auditing Department. In effect, the Budget Department was also a management trainee department.

Nancy Johnson had been appointed head of Budgeting two years ago. Nancy had been working in one aspect or another of this area for the last six years. As a result of her hard work and attentiveness to budget matters, she had reached this management position.

Her approach to managing the "Budget Shop" was captured in one of her favorite quotes: "I keep my office door open. If my employees are having any problems, they will come in and tell me." And with that said, she tended to stay in her office, doing her work. As a result, she seldom saw or talked with the budget specialists under her charge.

Typically, the specialists would prepare budget reports for submission to other departments in the company. These reports contained very detailed analyses about spending or revenue patterns. The business and accounting graduates who were recruited by the company considered an assignment in the Budget Department a prestigious appointment, and as a result, the Budget Department could hire or select eager, energetic employees; however, to these ambitious "go-getters," the reports were boring and tedious. Their view was quite different from Nancy's: She saw these reports as invaluable training exercises.

After preparing a draft work-up of the report, the specialists would send the draft to Nancy for review and inspection. Busy with many other tasks, Nancy would glance them over, then have her secretary return the report back to the specialist who prepared it. The specialists, young and eager to learn, were expecting some feedback on how well they had produced the reports, so that they could learn enough for their future auditing tasks. Nancy felt she was too busy, though, and did not add any commentary to the reports.

Because Nancy just glanced at the reports and did not give the specialists any helpful instruction in preparing them, the reports were often sent out with

errors. The department head who received a faulty report would directly call the specialist who prepared it. After a few faulty reports, the communications from the higher ranking department head to the junior specialist became hostile and rancorous. Since Nancy was completely bypassed in this communication, she could not learn of any problems, much less act to help correct them. Over a period of a few months, the number of errors grew, and the relations between the departments heads and the specialists became tense and hostile.

The specialists shared the same open office space. Whenever a specialist experienced problems with a department head, everyone quickly knew about it, and all specialists experienced problems. Moreover, they felt they were getting no support from Nancy. As they experienced more hostility from outside departments, hey became more antagonistic towards Nancy. They would often sit together and discuss how badly things were going. They believed that Nancy was ignoring and not helping them, and that there was a lot of information she was keeping from them.

Over the months, the specialists spent more time talking together, sympathizing and complaining. Indeed, the more they talked to one another, the bolder they became in talking with friendsor anyone else who would listenoutside their department. They made no secret of their dissatisfaction and displeasure with Nancy. The same kind of disgruntled communications spread among the different department heads. However, they complained to on another about the poor quality of the budget reports they were receiving and about how Nancy had things "screwed up." But as far as Nancy knew, everyonespecialists and department heads alikewas happy and satisfied with the work of the Budget Department.

After about five months, enough news of the problem had reached Nancy's boss to move him to act. Finally, on a Monday morning as Nancy was walking to her desk, her boss asked to see her in his office. She was shocked when he said: "Nancy, what in the hell's gone wrong in Budget? I'm getting calls from department heads who say they can't get a correct budget report. And I keep hearing rumors about all these budget specialists who are threatening to quit the first chance they get. Get this problem fixed soon, or I may need to take some strong action myself. "

Nancy left, visibly shaken. When she reached her office, she uncharacteristically closed the door, dropped her briefcase on the floor and sank into her chair. She stared straight ahead, focusing on nothing in particular, and thought: "What in the world happened? And what do I do now?"